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Neck treatment compared to aerobic exercise in migraine: A preference-based clinical trial

K. Luedtke, W. Starke, Karolin von Korn, T. Szikszay, A. Schwarz, A. May

2020

103 participants · 31 citations

Abstract

Objectives: The main objective of this study was to compare the effectiveness of aerobic exercise with physiotherapy. A second objective was to evaluate whether patients with pain referred to the head during manual palpation will benefit more from physiotherapy than patients with local or no pain. Methods: A total of 103 patients with migraine received physiotherapy (n = 79) or supervised aerobic exercise (n = 24) according to their preference as an add-on treatment. Both groups had the same contact time with a specialized physiotherapist. The primary outcome measure was headache frequency during the 4 weeks after the intervention. Eighty-seven patients were analyzed at the primary end point (n = 69 in the physiotherapy group; n = 18 in the aerobic exercise group). A follow-up assessment was conducted 3 months after the final intervention. Results: During the initial assessment of the upper cervical spine, 17 patients reported no pain, 45 local pain, and 25 referred pain to the head. Patients in the physiotherapy group had a mean reduction of 1.8 days (standard deviation (SD) 6.07), while patients in the aerobic exercise group had a mean reduction of 1.2 days (SD 4.27) at the primary end point. This difference was not statistically significant (p = 0.8). The largest improvement was noted in the group that showed referred pain to the head and received physiotherapy (2.13 days (SD 7.82)). Only patients in the physiotherapy group reported a subjectively perceived general…

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